Dots Illusion

[Edrick]

This thing just made my brain hurt after a while, though, but I thought it was really interesting.
[attachment=0:e4ea0]dots.gif[/attachment:e4ea0]
If your eyes follow the movement of the rotating pink dot, the dots will remain only one color, pink.

However if you stare at the black "+" in the center, the moving dot turns to green.

Now, concentrate on the black "+" in the center of the picture. After a short period, all the pink dots will slowly disappear, and you will only see only a single green dot rotating.

Kinda cool the way the brain works this way. Not quite as hurty as trying to make that spinning girl go the other way, though... I still haven't been able to see anything other than clockwise. ><

[Mizango]

Oh wow, that's pretty cool.

[Fou-Lu]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...rX2/ani079.gif

[Cjskater]

old as the interwebs itself

[Charla]

old as the interwebs itself

Older than the term interwebs, for that matter.

[Remyo]

haven't seen it for awhile though.

[Khamsin]

old as the interwebs itself

Older than the term interwebs, for that matter.

As old as animated .gifs!

[Chips]

I think it was Priran who proved with a SS that there's actually some green IN the pink before it blinks and switches to the next dot, so it's not all illusion, and more BS.

[Khamsin]

I think it was Priran who proved with a SS that there's actually some green IN the pink before it blinks and switches to the next dot, so it's not all illusion, and more BS.

Then the illusion is that we see it normally when we look at the +, but it magically disappears when we look directly at the dot.

[Edrick]

lol, I guess I'm just behind the times, then. XD I should really look around more for interesting stuff instead of just FFXI stuff and geek news stuff. >.>

[Skyylya]

The dot is always green whether you stare at the middle or not, the only difference is that when you're trying to follow it, the dot moves faster than you're eye can process it's movement therefore you just see a flash, when you stare at the center your eye isn't moving along with the the moving dot, so you can see it every time it moves.

Like looking at a helicopter, or better yet a ceiling fan. If you try to follow one of the blades around you're more likely to see nothing, where-as if you just stare at the center of the ceiling fan you will see the 'illusion' of the blades moving slowly since you're eye isn't trying to move at the same speed, which is impossible.

As for them dissappearing that can happen with a lot of things, like when you are trying to go to sleep at night and have the constant hum of an air conditioner. eventually your brain will just turn off that sensor until it's 'jogged' to start recognizing it again. If you submit your eye's to that constant pink color, and since pink isn't really one of the 'primary' colors as far as your eye/brain is concerned it'll just ignore that stimulus until you 'jog' your eye's by looking away and refreshing that stimulus.

[Weeks]

Al Gore whipped up this little .gif back in 1983.

[Ruby]

i like optical illusions.

[sb]

reminds me of
http://bwcastle.ytmnd.com/

[Skyylya]

reminds me of
http://bwcastle.ytmnd.com/

Combination of the Trichromatic and Opponent-process theories.

Like that black and white picture you stare at that looks like nothing, then if you look away it looks like the face of jesus.

[aru]

reminds me of
http://bwcastle.ytmnd.com/

what's supposed to be happening there? i dont get it

[Skyylya]

reminds me of
http://bwcastle.ytmnd.com/

what's supposed to be happening there? i dont get it

The picture is normally in black and white, then it switches for 15 seconds to shades of blue and yellow.

In your eye are rods and cones, cones are the nerve receptors that take in the frequencies that denote color. In your eye there are three opposite processes.

Blue-yellow
red-green
black-white

This is why color blind people are normally of the red-green kind because those are the same cone, same for blue-yellow and black white.

Anyway what happens in situations like that castle is that by staring at the yellow and blue you are essentially 'wearing down' those cones into a sort of lessened state of receptivity and when the image switches back to the black and white photo since you're eye's cones were worn out for those colors, you are seeing the opposite of those colors, which in turn is the colors you see filling in the black and white picture.

But blue and yellow are opposite, so why are you seeing the green/white clouds and a perfectly colored picture? Because you are wearing down the blue and yellow receptors of the cones in your eye, so you can't see the opposite of either, since both are worn down. Instead you see the colors that are shown which is a combination of the other cones filling in the gap for the missing cones. Or rather, the brain filling the gap for what it knows should be there. In this case it just happens to perfectly color in the black and white photo.

Try it yourself some time, get a bright green piece of paper or something like that, or red for that matter and stand in a well lit area near a white surface (walls are good) and stare at the piece of paper for like 15-30 seconds and then pull it away and look at the white surface.

Since you are wearing down the color receptor in the cone for that given color, red for this example, your eye will automatically revert to it's opposite the moment you pull the red paper away, and you will see a green square against the white wall where you were holding the red paper.

[aru]

ok, i see what's happening now. i guess i was moving my eyes around too much before. which makes we wonder why they flash text around the image if you need to keep yourself so focused on a single tiny point... of course you are going to shift your eyes to read shit that's poping up and blinking =/